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My special thanks to Dirk Becker for his many contributions to The Spanish Wine Page. {J.Riis}
Dirk's Visit to Rioja
A Visit to La Rioja
A Rioja Visit
The Rioja is a unique landscape, most pleasing because of the differences of the humid and fertile Ebro Valley and the mountains of the Sierra Cantabria. The vineyards were very impressive to me because we as Germans know only of wine cultivation on hills, there they were on plain ground and the vines seperated one by the other by great distance because of the dry ground and with enough space for tractors between them. The Rioja region must have been very rich a long time. That can be seen by the wonderful and magnificent buildings around the Plaza de la Paz in Haro. The plaza itself is pure Spain: very lively, sunlit with many tapa bars and wine shops.
We stayed for four nights in the Hostal Aragon (very basic, but inexpensive) and in the first night our car was broken into and the radiocassette stolen (thankfully, not much more!). So we had to go to the Police and Guardia Civil and my Spanish improved. We abandoned the thought of leaving directly and the next day we started our visits.
We went to Logroño and visited Marques de Murrieta - the oldest (or 2nd-oldest) bodega of Rioja. Their wines have become nearly as famous as Vega Sicilia's. Their Castillo Ygays are legendary, kept in wood for more then a decade. The '68 Ygay was kept on wood for 13 years!!! Don Alfonso Troya wanted to know our profession and I think he was a bit disappointed hearing that we were just physics and chemistry students. He showed us the whole bodega and took some time. We were the only 2 visitors. by the way: it's necessary to speak Spanish when going there - only one of 6 visits was done in English! So I had to attempt to translate the bits that I understood for my wife. After nearly two hours he opened two bottles of wine (just for us!): a Reserva '90 and the wonderful El Dorado Blanco '88. the red reserva seemed to be a bit young and with a bit acid, but it has a very great potential and I expect a wonderful wine with a very fruity taste (berries), the best red Murrieta since 85. The El Dorado is a thrilling white wine made in tradional method (kept in wood like the reds): very strong, fruity, herbal with a unique golden colour!
We bought some wines there (it's a bit cheaper than other places and it's difficult to get the rare wine elsewhere) besides the two mentioned above: Ygay '68 (we had it at Christmas): a dark, red colour with a tremendous nose of fruit and wood (never had such a smell before) and a superb taste: a wine which is even now quite young. the tunes of wood and fruit are harmonised to a complex and aromatic combination difficult to describes. the echoes were nearly endless. Taste it!! It's a happening!! Gran Reserva '78 (I had the wine once, it was great but I can't say more) Gran Reserva '87 (haven't tasted it, much too young)
it's a pity that Murrieta is selling the wine so young now. They did not always do so. The wines are too young and the quality is not always on the same high level (as it should have been 10 and more years ago). But it was a great event having been there and I expect to go there once again... It was the same with all other bodegas as with Murrieta: they took very much time for us to show us their installations and let us test the wines. They were very nice to us - especially because I tried to speak Spanish.
The day we visited Murrieta did not bring much more else. We visited (without having made any appointment) Martinez Lacuesta, a little bodega in Haro which produces no own grapes and so only has a large cellar. They produce Reservas Campeador and Martinez Lacuesta. I never tried them before but they will be rather good.
Going out for dinner in Haro is no problem: we did not go into the Beethoven because it seemed to expensive (for us) and too touristic (Rioja has a fair amount of tourism - mainly from Spain). There were very good places like "Terete" - great roast lamb, and the "Meson Atamauri" (near the Plaza de la Paz - with good and cheap menus and a very nice fruity house wine). We liked Spanish cooking very much but missed the paella there. Instead we tried -the always good and unique - tortilla española (every time I've tried to cook it at home it does not taste like in Spain - don't know why!!!) and (a Rioja speciality:) "chorizo y patatas" (sausage and potatoes extremely delicate and delicious, to be acompanied by a strong red wine!).
The next day we had our 'tour de force'. We went to the Barrio de la Estación and visited first La Rioja Alta - accompanied by a journalist who worked for Geo Spain, makeing a report about Spanish winemaking. La Rioja Alta is a very impressive bodega with a large production and many "barricas" (oak barrels) and stainless steel tanks for fermentation. We got served a Alberdi Crianza '89 after our visit: a very delicate and elegant wine with well harmonised tones of wood and fruit. Very slight for a wine which has spent so much time in oak.
Then we walked 10 steps down the road and entered Muga. The bodega was very nice, but the man who led through the bodega was not so friendly as those we found in other bodegas. A very old bodega and nearly all is handmade. They clarify the wines with egg whites. They served us a Muga Crianza '89 (a nice wine but a bit angular and not so impressive for a first encounter) and then the junior chef (I think) joined us and he was very nice and we talked a bit very amusing.
The next visit was CVNE. When I called the week before Señor Chacon told us that they don't do tours in the afternoon and so he organized our visit during his siesta!! (one who knows the Spanish a little knows what that means, and I thought it was very very friendly of him!!)
While we were waiting we tried a glass of wine (CVNE Reserva '87: one of my favorite reservas of La Rioja. Very complex, earthy, fruity and strong. Promises a good future (is still too young)) and could look at the old books dated 1900 and earlier, all in very fine calligraphic style. Very interesting, indeed! The visit of CVNE was impressive - nice cellars and racks of bottles (including some very old ones). When we told him that we drank a bottle of Imperial '66 on our wedding day (because we are both of 1966) he went to the bottle rack and took down an Imperial '66 showed it and - put it back. We thought he would have given it to us... Before he left he served us an Imperial Reserva '87: I can only recommend the few drops I tried there: but the wine was (besides it was much too young) very elegant, round, fruity and gives the very best hopes. It was probably the best wine we got served in all our bodegas!! he took us in his car back to Haro center (we bought 12 bottles) and - I have to say it again - we liked him very much!!
The next day - before our journey home - we visited Tondonia and I have to say it was the most impressive visit: when you enter the bodega you think the time is turned back for 100 years: a dark and humid cellar of enormous length. all is kept in wood: the tanks for fermentation, the barricas, all... 100 years ago they dug a tunnel 100 meters long (up to 8 meters under ground from the station quarter to the Ebro River. Along this tunnel barricas, barricas, barricas and due to the very humid air around there everywhere,like stalactites is mould. The older bottles are covered in mould. Great stuff!! El Señor led us to the so called 'cementerio': a large room which looks like a crypt with many 'graves' along the walls: the 'graves' are full of bottles of ALL years the bodega produced wines!! There the Tondonia family is said to test their old wines. In the middle of the room they have a round table (an old top plate of a fermentation tank) in the center of the table is a vine (no longer growing), and from the top of the room to the table there are millions of cobwebs which are never swept away. In this room we could try the Tondonia reservas in red and in white (both 1985): both were very impressive wines: the red wine with a grand smell and a taste so full of fruit and wood that it is best to keep it many years in your own cellar. The white is a typical Rioja white of unusual very pale colour and a fine taste of herbs and fruits. It's more decent as the white from murrieta and less sweet but it will probably turn out that this wine is the better one!
That was our first (and not our last) trip to the Rioja. I can suggest this trip to everyone who wants to know a bit about wines. the people there are very friendly and you learn, see, taste a lot!! Our poor Scirocco had to transport us, our baggage and 55 bottles of fine wine (you couldn't even see through the back windows)!!
Dirk Becker, November 1995
Addresses, Restaurants & Hotels
Here are some useful addresses for those who would like to organize a visit to La Rioja.To get addresses of the "bodegas", you can write to:
Rioja Wine Council
Consejo Regulador
Jorge Vigón, 51
26003 LogroñoRioja Tourist Board
The Rioja government maintains its own tourist board. They also publish guide to hotels, restaurants, wineries, crafts, etc. If you require more information, assistance contact:Oficina de Turismo
Miguel Villanueva, 10
26071 Logroño
La Rioja, Spain
Tel: 34-41-29 12 60
Fax: 34-41-25 60 45
Hotel
Hostal Aragón
La Vega, 9
Haro
Tel: 31 00 04
Restaurants
Terete
General Franco, 26
Haro
Tel: 31 00 23Mesón Atamuri
Plaza Juan G. Gato, s/n
Haro
Tel: 30 32 20
Wine Shops
Mi Bodega
Calle Santo Tomas, 13
26200 Haro